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Breaking news: Fcc inaugurates paperless amateur radio licensing february 17

Discussion in 'Amateur Radio News' started by WA6ITF, Jan 29, 2015.

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  1. WA6ITF

    WA6ITF Ham Member QRZ Page

    BRAKING NEWS: FCC INAUGURATES PAPERLESS AMATEUR RADIO LICENSING FEBRUARY 17

    (Courtesy ARRL)

    SB QST @ ARL $ARLB004
    ARLB004 FCC "Paperless" Amateur Radio License Policy Goes into
    Effect on February 17

    ZCZC AG04
    QST de W1AW
    ARRL Bulletin 4 ARLB004
    From ARRL Headquarters
    Newington CT January 29, 2015
    To all radio amateurs

    SB QST ARL ARLB004
    ARLB004 FCC "Paperless" Amateur Radio License Policy Goes into
    Effect on February 17

    Starting February 17, the FCC no longer will routinely issue paper
    license documents to Amateur Radio applicants and licensees. The
    Commission has maintained for some time now that the official
    Amateur Radio license authorization is the electronic record that
    exists in its Universal Licensing System (ULS), although the FCC has
    continued to print and mail hard copy licenses. In mid-December the
    FCC adopted final procedures to provide access to official
    electronic authorizations, as it had proposed in WT Docket 14-161 as
    part of its "process reform" initiatives.

    Under the new procedures, licensees will access their current
    official authorization ("Active" status only) via the ULS License
    Manager. The FCC will continue to provide paper license documents to
    all licensees who notify the Commission that they prefer to receive
    one. Licensees also will be able to print out an official
    authorization - as well as an unofficial "reference copy" - from the
    ULS License Manager.

    "We find this electronic process will improve efficiency by
    simplifying access to official authorizations in ULS, shortening the
    time period between grant of an application and access to the
    official authorization, and reducing regulatory costs," the FCC
    Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) said. According to the WTB,
    the new procedures will save at least $304,000 a year, including the
    cost of staff resources.

    In comments filed November 5, the ARRL had strongly recommended that
    the FCC "give serious consideration to continuing a default
    provision for sending an initial paper license document to new
    licensees in the Amateur Radio Service, along with detailed, simple
    instructions for how to make the elections set forth in the notice
    relative to future modified or renewed licenses."

    The FCC said that applicants or licensees who include a valid e-mail
    address under "Applicant Information" in the ULS will receive an
    official electronic authorization via e-mail. New license applicants
    who do not provide a FCC Registration Number at the examination
    point will receive a printed license as well as an FRN and a
    temporary password to access the Commission Registration System
    (CORES).

    The ARRL and other Amateur Radio commenters also worried that unless
    a license document is printed on distinctive paper stock, its
    authenticity could be questioned in such situations as obtaining
    vanity call sign license plates. To address this, the FCC said the
    watermark "Official Copy" will be printed on each page of an
    official authorization that a licensee prints out from the ULS. The
    WTB recently stopped using distinctive paper stock to produce hard
    copy licenses and has been printing these on "standard, white
    recycled paper." The Bureau noted that the distinctive paper stock
    it had used was six times more expensive than the plain recycled
    paper it now uses.

    The ULS License Manager now includes settings that allow licensees
    to notify the WTB that they prefer to receive official
    authorizations on paper. Once the final procedures go into effect
    designating electronic access as the default, licensees can change
    the ULS License Manager setting so that the Bureau will print and
    mail a license document. Licensees also may contact FCC Support via
    the web at,
    http://esupport.fcc.gov/index.htm?job=contact_fcc_support , or via
    telephone or mail to request paper licenses.

    The FCC rejected as "outside the scope of this proceeding" an ARRL
    argument that Section 97.23 of the Amateur Service rules be amended
    to replace "licensee mailing address" with other alternatives,
    including e-mail, for use in Commission correspondence. The rule,
    which requires that any licensee mailing address be in an area where
    the licensee has US Postal Service access, has precluded FCC
    issuance of location-specific call signs in such areas as Navassa
    Island (KP1) and some Pacific islands.
    NNNN
     
  2. NZ2W

    NZ2W XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Not to be picky, but should not the title be BREAKING NEWS....
     
  3. KB2HSH

    KB2HSH Ham Member QRZ Page

    Soon, the Amateur Service license application will be "in the box" with the next rig you buy.

    Sad.

    John KB2HSH
    Springbrook, NY
     
  4. N9KY

    N9KY Ham Member QRZ Page

    *Breaking News
     
  5. WA8UEG

    WA8UEG XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    While I don't have a problem with it it's almost a joke.

    A savings of $300,000 a year which INCLUDES a non disclosed amount for employee resources in a budget of nearly 400 million.

    I do have to admit it's one of the only things I have seen the Government cut in a long time. Probably the only looser is the post office but they can make the loss up by raising postage fees..
     
  6. AF5HE

    AF5HE Ham Member QRZ Page

    We should have seen this coming
     
  7. AA9G

    AA9G Ham Member QRZ Page

    Did the ARRL really spell it BRAKING? If so I may have to reconsider my membership.
     
  8. K6BBB

    K6BBB Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    No "Braking News" on the original ARRL article. I received the same thing via email from ARRL.

    I wish the FCC was printing out the license on at least 30# paper that had a security background. Oh well.
     
  9. W4FJT

    W4FJT XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Heck, the first thing I did with my new one was scan it, store it away in the flap of the logbook, and reprint it on certificate paper with a larger callsign. Framed that, and that's the one I hang up in the shack for visitors to see. The online version will work for me if you can print it out.
     
  10. KJ6SVA

    KJ6SVA Ham Member QRZ Page

    Wow, they can hand out driver licenses for new immigrants and it's no big deal but they can't give us a radio license?
     
  11. KA9JLM

    KA9JLM Ham Member QRZ Page

    Now lets stop cutting down the Trees.
     
  12. NY7Q

    NY7Q Ham Member QRZ Page

    What are you braking for???? Must have gone to school in California!!!!!
     
  13. W9VO

    W9VO XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Stopped me right in my tracks! :)
     
  14. WW1ME

    WW1ME Ham Member QRZ Page

    CORRECTION to the above: We got one part of this wrong. It should say, with respect to new license applicants:

    Under the new procedures, a new license applicant who already has an FCC Registration Number (FRN) and provides a valid e-mail address under "Applicant Information" in the ULS will receive an official ULS-generated electronic authorization via e-mail. New license applicants lacking an FRN will receive one in the mail as well as a temporary password to access the Commission Registration System (CORES), but will no longer automatically receive a license document; they must request one by changing their "Paper Authorization Preference" in the ULS License Manager.

    Also, just fyi for the poster who mentioned it, the unspecified staff resources cost, according to the WTB, is $54,317.76. Postage is the biggest cost factor, at $221,025.28.

    73, Rick, WW1ME
    ARRL News Editor/Contributing Editor
     
  15. NU4R

    NU4R XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    That's beautiful John.
     
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